Tower of Secrets

BONUS-Harold "Happy" Hogan

A/N this is a bonus scene set between the first and second chapters, so it doesn't have the same length stipulations I try to give a normal chapter. You can go ahead and give them a reread if you need to. I'll wait.

Have you done it yet?

You haven't?

How about now?

Okay, good. Let's get this going. ⤵️

I didn't ask to be the head of security at the world's most profitable company. Okay, you caught me, I did, but I definitely had no idea what I was getting into. It can get pretty out of hand here at Stark Industries. I mean, the owner, my boss, is secretly Iron Man. An Avenger. Saved the world from aliens. Has an arc reactor in his chest. A literal genius. The list goes on.

So, yeah, life could get pretty chaotic when Tony Stark was in charge.

I just never expected to walk in on the tail end of a kidnapping.

It had been a normal day. I had woken up, chugged some coffee to wake me up, but not nearly as much as my boss would consume on a daily basis, gotten ready, and speeded off to work. A tour group would be going that day, and I still hadn't gotten around to making their lanyards, plus there had been a potential leak of future product information to track down and take care of.

All in all, I was more than shocked at what I saw when I took the elevator up to my office. Of course, it was a private elevator used solely by the Avengers secretly living in the tower along with a few select people, all of whom knew the super secret by Tony and his teammates.

I mean, no one ever expects the doors to slide open and reveal an unconscious teenager slumped over Hawkeye's shoulder while Black Widow showed the archer something on her phone. Pursing my lips, I wordlessly stepped inside, neither of them looking up.

"Stark said he had everything set up, right?" I heard Clint ask after a moment.

"Yeah, we wouldn't have went ahead and grabbed the kid if he didn't," Natasha answered, alleviating the former's concern.

This was... less than ideal. While my duty as a citizen was to report suspicious behavior, I was also very aware that there was probably a good reason a raven haired boy was being forced into the tower. "So," I found myself speaking, startling Clint, who had apparently not noticed my arrival, "we just picking up kids off the street now?"

Natasha smirked. "No, this one's special. Fury wants to train him into a future Avenger." Her tone indicated that she thought it was obvious.

Right, that just made perfect sense. It was only natural to kidnap random teenagers who were in good physical condition to train to become world saving superheroes. Clearly, it was the only reasonable option.

Then, realization set in and I stiffened. How'd they make it through to lobby to the elevator without raising suspicion?

I yanked out my phone, fumbling to unlock it and text Pepper Potts, Tony's fiancé and CEO who was on a business trip in Europe, about the impending PR nightmare in store.

I revised my checklist for the day: tour passes, information leak, and printing off a ridiculous amount of NDAs.

A/N okay, one last quick announcement: from this chapter forward, I will not be responding to any comments about the plot concept until it becomes so apparently obvious that I can't spoil anything.

Also, I just gave up half an hour to get this bonus out and it feels nice because I haven't gotten to write since Monday. This week has hated me, and the only reason I'm surviving is the sheer amount of caffeine consumed. I'm actually writing this as I wait for my giant cup of coffee and two sodas to wear off so I can sleep...